OCR Text |
Show 540 lN'SECTA. Several Saperdre, with an always long and narrow body, on account of their an tenore, which are composed of twelve joints and not of eleven, should also form a particular subgenus( 1 ). Of those species considered by all the entomologists of the day as Saperdre properly so called, we will cite the two follow. ing: S. carcharias; Cerambyx carclwrias, L.; Oliv., lb., 68, ii, 22. An inch long, covered with a cinereous-ycllow down punctured with black, and the antennc:c picked in with black and grey, Its larva lives in the trunk of the Poplar, and sometimes de· str·oys young plantations of that kind of tree. S. linearis; Cerambyx linearis, L.; Oliv., lb., ii, 13. About six lines long; very narrow, linear; black; legs short and yellow; elytra punctured in lines and truncated at the extremity. Its larva inhabits the Hazel-tree. Other species have been desct·ibec.l in which the body is still nanower, and the antennre are excessively long and almost as slendet· as a hair(2). In the fourth and last tribe, that of the LEPTURETJE, we find Longicornes in which the eyes are rounded, entire, or scarcely emarginated, and where, in this case, the antennre are inserted before, or at most at the anterior extremity of this slight emargination. The head is always inclined poste· riorly behind the eyes in several, or abruptly narrowed at its junction with the thorax, in the manner of a neck; the thorax is conical or trapezoidal and narrowed before. The elytra become gradually narrower. This tribe forms the genus LEPTURA(3), Lin., With the exception of certain species which belong to the pre· ( 1) The Sap erda cardui, asplwdeli, suturalis, &c. In some of the preceding spc· cies the eleventh and last joint is somewhat abruptly attenuated, but without being really divided into two. (2) See Fabricius, Olivier, Schamherr, and the Catalogue, &c., of Count De· jean. (3) Or the Stenocorus of the first edition of the Uegne Animal, a denomination which I have thought it best to suppress, on account of the confusion resulting from the different applications that have been made of it. N.B. Messrs Lepeletier and Serville-Encyc. Method., X, 687-have placed in this tribe a genus established by them under the name of EunnTERA, which COLEOPTERA. 541 ceding tribes and to the Donacire. 'fhus modified ' th'1 s genus cor- , respond.s .t o the Stenocorus of Geoffroy and the Rha(Yo '•.: um an d L eptura of Fabnc1us~ Sometimes the head is clongatc·d posteriorly, immediately behind the eyes. The antenn. re, frequently shorter than the body , are approx-imated at base, and mserted beyond the eyes, on two' little' eminences in the form of tubercles, and separated by an impressed line. The thorax is generally tuberculous or spinous on the sides. Here, the palpi at·e filiform; the last joint of the maxillaries is almost cylindrical, and the same of the labials ovoid; the third and two following ones of the antennre at·e dilated at their external angle, and are curved and silky, particularly in the males. Such are those which constitute the DEs:MooERus, Dej. The thorax is in the form of a trapezium, without tubercles or points on the sides; its posterior angles are extremely pointed. The maxillre and labium appeared to me to resemble those of the Lamire. But a single species, well represented with all its details by Knoch, is known. It inhabits Nor·tl1 America( 1 ). There, the palpi are inflated at the extremity, and terminated by a joint in the form of a reversed cone or triangle. The antennre are regular, glabrous, or simply pubescent. Some are removed from the others by the fact that their males alone are furnished with wings. Their thorax is conical and smooth, without spines or tubercles. They compose the genus VEsPERus, Dej.-Stenocorus, Fab. Oliv. Their head is l:lrge and placed on a kind of rotula. The antennre are long and slightly serratell, with the first joint shorter than the third. The last joint of the palpi is almost triangular. The eyes are oval and slightly emarginated. The elytra of the females are short, soft and gaping(2). should be distinguished from all those of this division of the Longicornes, by the number of joints in the antennre, amounting to twelve instead of eleven. Its type is an Insect of Dt·azil which is unknown to us. (1) Stenocorus cyaneus, Fub.; Knoch, N. lleyt., I, p. 148, vi, i; Rhagium cya· neum, Schrenberr. (2) Stenocorus strepens, Oliv., Col., IV, 69, I, i, b; S. luridus, Ross., }'aun. Etrusc. Mant., II, App. p. 96, tom. III, fig. 1. |